Chandler Vaught, seen here, and his brother Jackson have been running the corn maze for the past eight years. / Helen Comer / Gannett Tennessee

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MILTON — Those trying to negotiate through the maze of political attack ads, rhetoric and promises this election season may have more fun navigating the corn rows on Stan Vaught’s farm.

The giant maze has been designed to feature the faces of President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. From the air, the head shots of Obama and Romney can be seen clearly.

Over the years, the maze has been cut out in the form of America the Beautiful, the Air Force and several other designs.

It all began years ago when Stan and Terri Vaught’s two children, Chandler and Jackson, were selling pumpkins on the side of Lascassas Pike to earn a little extra spending money. Their uncle Mike Vaught suggested that the family make a corn maze for people to enjoy.

The boys took their uncle’s advice and with the parents’ help began a corn maze eight years ago.

“The idea we had was to get the people to come to the corn field and buy the pumpkins there,” said Chandler, now age 16 and a sophomore at Central Magnet School.

But over the years, the maze grew more popular.

“We thought at the time that the corn maze would be the smaller end of the business (instead of the pumpkins), but it has flip-flopped on us” Chandler said.

Jackson is now a freshman at Vanderbilt, but will be coming home a couple of weekends this season to help with the maze.

“The weekends are ideal for middle school, high school, little kids, kids and families to come out,” Stan Vaught said. “The maze is usually about 2.5 miles to walk through and it’s good exercise. October is a good month for it.”

This year, Chandler came up with the idea for the design of the maze.

“I thought it was a good idea if we recognized the election,” he said.

Ideal for a maze

As soon as they figured out Romney was going to be the Republican nominee, Chandler suggested the maze resemble the nominees.

The corn crop was ideal for a maze this year. It was planted after the dry month of June.

“We got about an inch of rain the Fourth of July, and planted it on July 7,” Stan said. “It rained a lot and it has never quit growing. This year, I believe it’s the prettiest corn field we have ever had.”